This invention relates to bacon slicers, and in particular, to a pin wheel roller assembly used in a bacon slicer.
Pin wheel roller assemblies are used in bacon slicing machines to move the sliced bacon away from the slicing apparatus to a sliced bacon processing stage. The pin wheel roller assemblies are typically comprised of an elongated cylindrical tube with a number of sets of radial pins protruding circumferentially outward at various positions along the cylindrical tube. Because a set of pins protrudes outwardly along the same radially circumferential line about the cylindrical tube, each set of pins is commonly referred to as a pin wheel. A typical cylindrical tube has four pin wheels evenly spaced along the length of the cylindrical tube. The cylindrical tube rotates about its elongated central axis. The pin wheels rotate with the cylindrical tube, with the pins of each pin wheel engaging bacon slices and moving them radially across the cylindrical tube.
Since bacon slicers are dealing with edible products, each slicer and its corresponding pin wheel assembly must be cleaned at regular intervals. The cleaning process requires disassembling the slicer and specifically cleaning those parts touching the edible products being processed, including and especially the pin wheel assembly. Bacon slicers must also work at relatively high speeds to be economical. The high speed operation of the bacon slicer exerts substantially force on a pin wheel assembly. Pin breakage is common. With pin breakage, the bacon slicer must be stopped and the pin wheel roller removed and repaired.
Prior art pin wheel assemblies are typically comprised of an elongated, one-piece, cylindrical, hollow tube, with four sets of radial holes formed circumferentially about the tube at evenly spaced radial intervals along the length of the tube. Pins are inserted into each hole and welded to a backing ring within the tube. The points of the pin thereby protruding outwardly from the tube. Because of the prior art construction of pin wheel assemblies, repairing a prior art pin wheel assembly is tedious and time consuming.